Chapter 8: Revolution to the Origin
Planet Ragol: Ruins: Outer Levels
Pieces of debris littered the area, and the walls had holes in them, made by human weapons. It seemed a battle had gone on down here, but there were no signs of bodies. There was a capsule by the first room's door, so Danielle played the message.
"Why am I here, with monsters lurking everywhere? Did the army even stand a chance against them?"
This confused the Ranger. There were no monsters around here. There weren't even humans. What was Rico talking about? When Danielle entered the next room, she finally saw what Rico was talking about. Nightmarish monsters attacked, eager to get rid of Danielle. With her hurt shoulder, it was much harder to kill the monsters. The first ones that appeared were what Rico called Dimenians. They had two Photon scythes for arms, and there were three different versions of them. Dimenians were the most common, with blue scythes and bodies. La Dimenians were faster, and had pink scythes and bodies. The most powerful versions were the So Dimenians. They were larger than the others, and had yellow bodies and scythes. They seemed to be the guardians of the ruins, and they wanted to get rid of the intruder.
Danielle snapped up her Vulcans, struggling to keep her hand steady. These were the creatures she had seen in her dreams. Everything was exactly the same. The look of the ruins, the monsters, the look on her face, all of it just like it was in her dreams. The Ranger pulled the trigger, cutting down the nightmarish creatures. They fell to the ground, their bodies turning to dust and leaving purple blood behind. When the room was finally clear, Danielle was shaking like mad. Never before had she been through something as scary as that. By some of the wreckage from Pioneer 1's military, there was another capsule.
"Wreckage…! These weapons are from Pioneer 1. They must have already entered the ruins, and from the look of things, fighting went on. It must've been a big battle. Seems our army was hurt badly."
The next creatures the RAmarl encountered were known simply as Claws. They were weak, but they appeared in large numbers. Most of their attacks were deflected by Danielle's shield, and the ones that managed to hit her armor barely did any damage. In the room that she first encountered the Claws, another monster attacked. The Delsaber was a fierce foe. Almost all of Danielle's attacks were absorbed by its clawed left arm. Taking one glance at the Delsaber's buster sword, the RAmarl decided not to fight at close range. She stepped backwards, aiming for the Delsaber's head. A lucky bullet slammed into where the brain should be, and the Dark creature dissolved into dust.
The next couple of rooms contained the same creatures as before. There was a new creature that made an appearance in a room with a large window overlooking the ruins. The Dark Belra seemed to be staring out the window, until Danielle entered the room. It slowly turned to face her, lifted up its arm, and sent it flying at her. The arm slammed into Danielle, knocking her backwards. She found at that she could not move, since the behemoth's bioelectric charge played havoc with her armor, resulting in almost total paralysis. The Ranger activated her inventory and used her Antiparalysis, allowing her to dodge the Dark Belra's incoming claw swipe. She ran around to its back and opened fire. The bullets cut into its armor, and the creature died. There was another capsule near the window, so Danielle listened to it.
"I can see a distant view through this window… The 'ruins' are huge. I would have never imagined such a great civilization…"
Danielle looked out that window, and was amazed by what she saw. The ruins were huge. The whole area seemed to be a couple of miles long. Apsaras floated over her shoulder, examining the ruins. Its master looked at it, and realized that it had been a long time since she fed it. The Ranger looked around, and spotted a green item box on the ground. She opened it up and found a Star Atomizer, an item that restored a person's health and technique power, along with that of the people in a certain radius around the user. Knowing that Apsaras meant more to her than any item, she turned to the Mag.
"Come here Apsaras, I have something for you." The Mag floated over to her, and she fed it the Star Atomizer. To her surprise, the Mag evolved. Where an Apsaras once floated, there was a Diwari. The Mag was blue and white, instead of dark green. Despite the change in appearance, the Mag was still the same. Diwari was happy at the fact that it had finally evolved. The last time it changed, it was from a Surya, which was a Kalki before. "Looks like you finally changed, buddy. I'm proud of you."
They continued on, going deeper still into the ruins. It had been about half an hour before she reached a room with a large hole off to the right. Danielle walked over to it, playing the message capsule that was by the edge.
"What is this big hole? It looks like… remnants of some type of energy explosion. …Energy…? Was the Central Dome destroyed by this!?"
The Ranger peered over the edge, watching water cascade down into the depths of the planet. The walls in the hole seemed unnaturally smooth, which could only be done by none other than energy. While Danielle was looking down into the hole, she felt something strange. It was the same feeling she had when she was first about to enter the ruins. It was pure evil, whatever waited down there. And it was up to her to defeat it. Danielle got to her feet and turned to the room's other door. Through there, she found a strange monument. It was black with yellow symbols, and was incased in crystal. There was another message capsule near it, which meant Rico had been this way.
"Those strange characters were found here and there. I think I have enough samples to decipher the meaning of the monument. 'Light makes darkness, a pair exists, but it doesn't always exist. Reincarnation goes forever. The rule is here. It should be sealed. MUUT DITTS POUMN'… Does it make sense? I wish I had enough time to study these unknown characters."
There were only two other doors in the room. One led into a supply room, and one led to a room with a teleporter. The Ranger stepped into the teleporter and vanished.
Planet Ragol: Ruins: Engine Room Area
"I haven't studied all the characters yet, but I've got some useful information. This is the most important fact I've found. There was NO ancient civilization on Ragol. We didn't discover ruins. This is a spaceship. A gigantic spaceship."
This information completely surprised Danielle. She had wondered what all the machinery in
here was for, and now she had found out. This must have been the engine room area, since there were so many unknown machines at work. There was a strange humming sound, and the Ranger spun around. A Dark Gunner had dropped in, along with a Death Gunner. The two monsters were both the same, but with different colored crystals. The Death Gunner had a green crystal from which its beam fired from, while a Death Gunner had a red one. From her experience with the Canadines and Canunes in the mines, she knew that the red ones were always the leaders. A barrage of Photon bullets slammed into the Death Gunner, and it dissolved into dust. The Dark Gunner froze, and was easily dispatched.
Danielle walked into the next room, and found another one of those strange monuments. There was another capsule on the floor next to it, but it wasn't activated. The familiar sound of monsters teleporting announced the arrival of more Dark creatures. It was a group of Dimenians, accompanied by two Delsabers. Danielle had learned long ago that the best way to fight these swordsman monsters was to circle them and attack their back. Ignoring the Dimenians, she dodged the first Delsaber attacks and fired at their backs. The monsters quickly fell. Turning to the Dimenians, Danielle aimed at the ones closest to her. In an instant, they were reduced to nothing more than dust and purple fluid. Now it's time for that capsule, the Ranger thought.
"I'm now inside the ancient spaceship. Well, it's not just a spaceship. It's a… 'casket.' Something or somebody was sealed in this spaceship to remain buried here. What is IT? Why was something buried in such a manner? Anyway, I know a monster is sleeping in this cave. We've opened the forbidden door."
Danielle's blood ran cold when she heard the last two sentences. What she had thought before was right. Something was inside this place. But she had gone too far to turn back now. Rico was somewhere in the spaceship, and Danielle intended to find her. There was another door in front of her, and this one led to the engine room itself. The room was huge, and it seemed that the ship was still operational. Danielle heard something that sounded a lot like a horse, but alien somehow. She spotted a creature that was half-man and half-horse charging her way. She dodged the incoming bladed arm and turned to the Chaos Bringer. It slowly turned to face her and prepared for another charge. Danielle raised her Vulcans and opened fire on the beast. The Chaos Bringer died, and Dimenians appeared.
"Man, will these guys ever give up?" the RAmarl asked no one in particular as she attacked the Dark creatures. Now, a group of Claws appeared and picked a fight with Danielle. After that were Dark Gunners and Delsabers. By the time the room was finally cleared of the foul beasts, Danielle was exhausted. She walked into the next room, clutching her shoulder in pain. It had hurt even worse than before, and she may not be able to use her right arm much longer. In front of another crystalline monument was a capsule. Danielle sat on the ground and listened to the message.
"I want to run away! But I have no place to return to… Perhaps no one will ever find this message and listen to it. Ever… Pioneer 2 will not come down when they discover this planet is dangerous. Will somebody from Pioneer 2 still come to save us? Who knows? Regardless, I leave this message here. This is evidence of my existence."
The RAmarl leaned back against the monument as she listened to the message. If only Rico had known that someone did come. She would have waited for the search party and gone to Pioneer 2 with her father. The thought of Rico's father made her heart ache, for it brought back memories of Danielle's dad.
"No. Don't think about that now. He may still be alive," she whispered. The Ranger closed her eyes and offered a silent prayer for her dad. When she was done, she got to her feet and continued on. Rooms full of Dimenians, Claws, Gunners, Bringers, and Delsabers were cleared as fast as possible on her way. Not long after her small break she took, Danielle found another teleporter. This area seemed to have been too easy, so she was prepared for heavier resistance in the next area.
Planet Ragol: Ruins: Bridge Area
The organic matter on the walls around her pulsated, as if alive. Webbing also covered the area, but it was obvious that it was not made by spiders. All of the monsters that had ever appeared in the spaceship attacked with determination, as if they were guarding something. They were like soldiers ordered into battle, fighting even though they knew they were going to die. Something was controlling the creatures, but what? The first room contained three Dark Belras and a few Dimenians. By another monument was a capsule, which Danielle played once the room was cleared.
"Dark Falz! That's the name. The god of destruction that revives in the millennial cycle. Perhaps this entity encountered a civilization thousands of years ago. They could not defeat it, but managed to seal it in this gigantic spaceship. They abandoned it somewhere far from their planet. It was this place, Ragol. We've come to a terrible place at the worst possible time."
Dark Falz… It was the one that had caused the death of all the people on Ragol, and made the monsters vicious. If it was in this spaceship, then Danielle should get back to Pioneer 2 and tell them to leave. But something made her want to go deeper until she found this dark god.
"I must be crazy if I want to find this thing, but why do I want to see it so bad?" she wondered aloud. Danielle shook her head and continued on. The next room was inhabited by a Chaos Sorcerer, a creature she had seen back in the outer levels. They could cast Rafoie, Gibarta, and Resta. They were very dangerous, and had to be dealt with first. The only things worse than them were Gunners and Bringers. Thankfully, it took a long time for a Sorcerer to cast its techniques. Once again, there was a monument and a capsule in the room.
"Dark Falz is a consciousness. This entity has no body."
"Okay. What is so important about this info?" Danielle asked her Mag. It did its own version of a shrug and beeped. "You're right. Maybe I will find out later on." They walked through the door and fought through wave after wave of Dark creatures. What the RAmarl had thought before was correct. There was much more resistance here than in the other parts of the ship. Three Dark Belras and a Chaos Bringer were not easy to take on at the same time, that was for sure. In a long hallway with more of the strange organic material on the walls, there was another capsule with a short message on it.
"I miss my father. I wasn't a very good daughter was I? Is my father OK now?"
In the middle of the most dangerous place on this planet, Rico was worried about her dad. Most hunters wouldn't even think about their family if they were in her position. They would only be worried about their own survival. Danielle decided to let her mind wander elsewhere, before she thought about her family again.
After what felt like hours of backtracking through the maze that was the spaceship, Danielle finally got back on the right track. The first hint about her going the wrong way was the lack of message capsules. There were none on her current path, so she went back to the room that had about four or five doors in it. When she found one of the capsules by a monument, she knew she was on the right track.
"Don't let it come in! The dark consciousness looks for the best animal to obtain its temporal host body."
Danielle froze. Dark Falz could enter any body it chose, which meant that there was no way she could fight it. For all she knew, Dark Falz could take her over and use her for whatever it wanted. The RAmarl turned around, deciding to leave before it was too late, when she heard a voice. It sounded like a young girl, and she was pleading for help.
"Okay, forget about going back to the ship. There is a survivor here, and I'm going to find her, no matter what it takes." Reassured by the sound of her voice, the Ranger ran as fast as she could, trying to find the girl. Halls blurred by, and no monster tried to stop her. There was a very long hallway she ran down, which opened up into a anteroom with a monument in it. Danielle stopped, panting for breath. "Running was not a good idea," she muttered. There was a sharp pain in her heart, and her shoulder ached again. She listened to Rico's message capsule while trying to catch her breath.
"The door is already open. We opened it. This may be the beginning of the end of the universe. We have to do something… We must do it. We must defeat it now! Defeat it before that dark 'thing' revives with the perfect body."
The Ranger shook her head. She knew that she was going to have to do this, even if she didn't here that girl's voice. Dark Falz was some seriously bad news. If it ever came back, then Pioneer 2 and every last living being in the universe would be doomed. Taking out her Vulcans once again, Danielle stepped into what must have once been the bridge. But the organic matter covered everything in the room, making it look alive. She ignored her surroundings and focused on the enemies. Every last Dark creature appeared in the room, ready for a fight.
The first monsters to go were the Dark and Death Gunners. Their long range attacks were very dangerous, making them top priority. A Chaos Bringer charged into the room and headed for Danielle. She stepped out of the way at the last second and heard a Dimenian roar in pain. The RAmarl spun around and blasted the Bringer. Every fight in that room happened so fast, she couldn't remember all the details. There was just a lot of shooting and dodging attacks. After what felt like hours of intense fighting, the monsters stopped coming. Danielle stood there, Agito in hand and sweat dripping down her face. She had just defeated the largest amount of Dark creatures she had ever seen.
Diwari floated over to the north door and beeped excitedly. Danielle stood there, trying to understand what it was saying, when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She looked down and saw the buster of a Delsaber sticking through her. The RAmarl's eyes went wide, and the Delsaber withdrew its sword. Danielle collapsed to the ground, and blacked out.